By Emma Woollacott
The National Lottery is to create 27 extra new millionaires this weekend – one for every gold medal won by Team GB in this year’s Rio Olympics.
To celebrate the UK’s astonishing performance, an extra 67 prizes will be dished out in the Lotto Medal Event on Saturday, one for every medal scooped at the games.
There will be 27 ‘gold’ prizes of £1 million, 23 ‘silver’ £100,000 prizes and 17 ‘bronze’ winners taking home £50,000 each.
It’s generous – although not as generous as in 2012, when a similar one-off competition created 100 millionaires. The event, in honor of London’s status as host nation, broke the world record for the most millionaires created in a single draw.
The prizes will be given alongside the one guaranteed Millionaire Raffle Prize of £1,000,000 and the 20 guaranteed Millionaire Raffle Prizes of £20,000 to be won in the Millionaire Raffle Draw.
And, says the National Lottery team, they are intended as a thank you to the punters who have funded so many athletes, boosting the UK’s performance in the medal tables.
“They won, now you can too,” says the team. “You have helped fund 1,300 athletes from 40 different sports on their road to Rio and beyond. So thank you, you’re part of Team GB too. Every one of you can say, ‘I Am Team GB’.”
Around three-quarters of UK Sport’s funds come from the lottery, allowing it to put £272 million into high-level sport over the past four years. More than 4,500 athletes have benefited from the fund, including Laura Trott, Sir Chris Hoy, Tom Daley, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Mohamed Farah.
And, between them, lottery-funded athletes have won 633 Olympic and Paralympic medals since the funding began.
“National Lottery players have helped transform the prospects of talented athletes in this country, which has taken our Olympic and Paralympic teams from strength to strength, seen them soar up the medal table and made the nation proud,” says Liz Nicholl, CEO of UK Sport.
Source: The Sun
